Madison County

Eric England – 2011 – USA

Madison County is a decent and worthwhile treatment of painfully familiar horror flick chestnuts.  How many such films since the trailblazer Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) have been crafted around the basic premise of a group of young people heading out into the boonies and being waylaid by a city slicker’s nightmare of rednecks gone haywire?  The kids usually offend the locals with their condescending disrespect.  The bad guys are typically deformed and retarded, and have a powerful predilection for power tools.  Yes, that all happens here too, but writer/director Eric England manages to steer clear of the things that usually ruin these movies; i.e. idiotic behavior and dialogue, and pointless gore.  By folding in a bit of Blair Witch Project into the mix, he succeeds in building tension gradually and effectively even though we know pretty much exactly what is coming.  There is nothing that redefines the genre here, but it’s not bad, and sets up a sequel intriguingly without drawing groans.